Overcast's latest beta update tells listeners which podcasts are tracking them - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/31/21408823/overcast-podcast-app-beta-data-tracking <comment><USER2> Can't say enough good things about Marco and his app Overcast: it's better than apps with dozens of people working on them. The fact that this app isn't on Android is one reason I don't switch away from iPhone. I just hope Marco can be persuaded to work on a version for PinePhone!

</comment><comment><USER3> I found podcasting to be one of the more delightful parts of the internet, for a while mostly ignored by the surveillance and adtech applied to the rest of the web. Overcast is wonderful and I hope can continue to support an open podcasting model as opposed to the closed model currently most successfully pushed by Spotify.</comment>


IPhone passes BlackBerry in Market share at the expense of Nokia - <AUTHOR> http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/11/07/iphone-passes-rim-gains-on-nokia/

<comment><USER2> My understanding is that last year (2007), while everyone was salivating over the iphone and contemplating the its ramifications on the high-end phone market, Nokia sold the rest of the world budget phones and posted record profits. So I don't think they're really banking on the smartphone market -- at least as we've defined "smartphone" in the US. Especially when their high- end phones are selling for double or triple the price of the too-beat offering (iphone).

</comment><comment><USER3> Everyone has to be chipping away at Nokia, last year they were selling more phones in a day than Apple was for an entire quarter.

Still happy with my N95-8gb though, none of my iPhone friends can take quality 5MP pictures or 640x480 video at 30fps. To me, a "smartphone" is the full package of phone / internet / media, and the iPhone media capabilities suck compared to the competition.</comment>


Will Silicon Valley secede? - <AUTHOR> http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/state-local-politics/186468-will-silicon-valley-secede-balaji-srinivasan%E2%80%99s

<comment><USER2> Not a chance. Seceding from the US is right out. The last time anyone tried to do that, it did not go so well for them.

Even if we consider the somewhat simpler (or at least marginally less impossible) problem of seceding from California while remaining part of the Union, they'd to get California's permission first. I strongly doubt that California would ever be convinced to give up such a large portion of its tax base.

<comment><AUTHOR> It didn't go well for several reasons. One of which was the stronger economy of the North. Silicon Valley is a powerhouse that some feel is being held back by the east coast bureaucracy and I think that's what this is about. I think you've hit another point on the head, Silicon Valley is going to take California with it. And Washington, Oregon, and Colorado.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQdwZk2gpWo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQdwZk2gpWo)</comment>


Ask HN: What are your goals for 2018? - <AUTHOR> They say that making a commitment public strengthens it, so here is a place for you to state your goals or resolutions for 2018.
I'll start:
1. Work 2,000 hours
2. Grow the monthly revenue for my business by 50%
3. Launch my new business idea (codenamed T9)
4. Weigh less than 70kg from February 1 to December 31 (currently 71kg)
5. Go to gym 150 times (each session at least 15 mins run, planks, and 4 weight sets)
On 1 January 2019 I'll post another HN message asking if you met your goals and stating whether I met mine. <comment><USER2> 1\. Lose 10 pounds by the end of March 2018 or else I'll lose $50 and $10 of it will go to the National Rifle Association (a group I don't want to donate to).

2\. Market the heck out of the free goal-setting app I've been working on the last two months ([https://resethabit.com](https://resethabit.com)). Thing is, I like building things, but am always deflated when I have to do marketing.

3\. Find a well-paying remote job that pays significantly better than the early stage startup I was involved in last year. Early stage startups are great fun, but not if you have two kids to feed.

</comment><comment><USER3> 1\. Ship

2\. Ship

3\. Ship

Seriously, he have SO much stuff that's "almost done". This is the year we push all this stuff across the finish line and ship something we can sell. That's going to be our absolute laser-sharp focus for 2018... shipping.</comment>


Ask HN: How to get started with Typeface design? - <AUTHOR> Hi all,
I've been getting more interested in typography, to the point where I'd like to start experimenting with illustrating letterforms and general type design, but other than "just start drawing on paper" I'm not sure where to begin.
The first four pages of Google results for "illustrating letterforms" literally all point to a book called Drawing Type[1] (similar results for similar queries), but flipping through the preview on Amazon, the book looks to be more for inspiration than instruction.
How do I get started here? What are good introductory resources? What are the tools of the trade?
Thanks for reading :)
[1] http://www.amazon.com.br/Drawing-Type-Introduction-Illustrating-Letterforms/dp/1592538983 <comment><USER2> If you're in the UK, Reading university have a renowned Typography department and they run a two week short course in typography design. Might be worth a trip even if you're not in the UK.

[http://www.reading.ac.uk/typography/Shortcourses/typ- shortco...](http://www.reading.ac.uk/typography/Shortcourses/typ- shortcoursesTDi.aspx)

<comment><AUTHOR> I am not in the UK, but looked through the course. The info / pictures make it look like a great intro -- do you know if the curriculum is published anywhere?

<comment><USER2> Sorry, I don't. Maybe get in touch with them?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Well I'm of the camp when starting out to get your hands dirty whatever the means, I suggest is getting a free typeface editor and start by modifying an already made free/open source font (A good exercise is: take one you think is in some way horrible and can be done better, then see what it takes to fix it). As you experience you will learn, research, and connect to find solutions/show progress.

Secondly here is an interview with a notable type designer - Ray Larabie, [https://www.myfonts.com/newsletters/cc/200905.html](https://www.myfonts.com/newsletters/cc/200905.html) Which might be an inspirational.

Hope that helps.

</comment><comment><USER4> [http://designwithfontforge.com/en- US/index.html](http://designwithfontforge.com/en-US/index.html)

[http://fontforge.github.io/en-US/](http://fontforge.github.io/en-US/)

</comment><comment><USER5> What's wrong with drawing on paper?</comment>


Colleague looking for SWE roles with only math degree. Short notice - <AUTHOR> Hi HackerNews. A colleague of mine is in a bit of a pickle. He's got strong data structures/algorithm skills and has built several projects on his own.
However, due to immigration issues he only has a couple of weeks to get an offer. He doesn't require sponsorship, just needs any job in tech.
Do you have any advice for finding a role that can provide an EIN on short notice with his background?
He has undergraduate degree in Math and has several projects on Github in data science, web development and financial modeling.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! <comment><AUTHOR> Also feel free to connect with him directly on LinkedIn - [https://www.linkedin.com/in/serdardoruk/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/serdardoruk/)

GitHub Profile - [https://github.com/serdardoruk](https://github.com/serdardoruk)

</comment><comment><USER2> You should edit your question to include this person's Github name.

<comment><AUTHOR> Here is the GitHub profile link - [https://github.com/serdardoruk](https://github.com/serdardoruk)</comment></comment>


IT salary survey says: 'You've never had it so bad' - <AUTHOR> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/05/janco_salary_survey_january_2009/

<comment><USER2> Compare these two senerio.

Suppose the whole world needs a treatment for a virus. A medicine has been released. The world will still need a doctor per 1000 patient to diagnose and pescribe it. That translates to hundread million active jobs.

Now suppose a new computer virus is in the wild. One man codes the solution and releases it, say for free. The world will not need a second man for this solution, ever. Zero job created.

Once a software has been built and finished, it's a done job. How many cycles can one run enhancing it, or find a better solution? For a software to be used by 5 billion people, how many programmers do we need? Compare it back with the doctors.

<comment><USER3> It's true to an extent. However, most people aren't that adept with computers. My friends constantly ask me to fix things on their computers when there are perfectly available fixes out there. Likewise, if a treatment is over-the- counter, people can treat themselves. The prescription example is more an issue of legislating a business model - if the government legislated that people had to have an IT guy diagnose their computer and dispense the treatment, it would be the same. NOTE: Clearly there are good reasons for legislating that certain treatments be administered by a doctor and not the patient themselves. I'm not trying to argue that it's a maliciously legislated model, just that people often do treat themselves with OTC stuff.

People really often need help with their computers. Even simple things like installing drivers. They're available right from the manufacturer. You click a few things and then you're done. Yet, people in their 20s ask for help because they can't understand it.

Like medicine, software can always be better. So, even if you think that administration isn't an issue to be dealt with, there's still a lot to be done to make computers better and there always will be. Can my computer understand my voice? There's software, but it's not Star Trek-like. More to be done.

<comment><USER4> How about exchanging doctors with medical researchers and drug designers --- to make the analogy fit?</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Why Python good for web development? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> I'm what you might call a lifelong Python programmer; I discovered it as a teenager in the 90s when Red Hat's install tool broke and I dug into the source code. My previous experience was with C and Basic. I saw Python 1.x and was immediately hooked.

I've learned of course other languages; some I hate (Php) some I like (Go), but I always keep coming back to Python.

To me, Python finds a pleasant equilibrium between the heft and rigidity of something like Java and the carelessness of Php or JavaScript. Most simple operations are obvious and the native types that have direct literals cover the vast majority of your needs (dicts, lists, tuples, etc).

Then you get into meta-programming. With weakrefs and metaclasses, you can write things like ORMs without the hyper-verbosity you'd get with other languages.

For me, the main downside of Python is distribution/packaging. It's gotten _a lot_ better with WSGI, Docker, and virtualenv/pipenv, but one of the consistent struggles I've had as someone proposing a Python-based solution is installation/deployment. Back in the bad old days, I jokingly said to a colleague we should embed the entire Python interpreter inside Php somehow so we wouldn't have to walk clients through installing our webapp.

Another notable downside of Python is that while under_scores are the agreed upon standard, plenty of libraries use camelCase, which can be irritating. And over time, there have been some misnomers in package names and curious gotchas. But among languages of its age, Python is remarkable for how cleanly it has aged.

</comment><comment><USER3> because of reasons

<comment><USER3> OK for real. :-)

I've always liked Python for web dev because it is a good general purpose language, it's elegant, and has good web frameworks. Some other languages are really good at the web but not much useful outside of that. So with Python if you are building something with data analytics and the web it's a perfect choice. Python pairs well with a lot of areas. It doesn't pair with everything well, such as, Javascript I think pairs better with robotics. And there are other good general purpose languages too (Javascript, Java, etc).</comment></comment>


GNU Emacs ported to Android - <AUTHOR> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zielm.emacs

<comment><USER2> Just downloaded it. Here are a few things to note:

\- As soon as installed, the app will download emacs from a 3rd party repo. You have the option to specify your own, I picked the default one.

\- The app consists apparently of a terminal emulator and a Bourne shell (clone?). emacs will reside inside this emulator and the shell.

\- The app seems very young, segfaults are frequent. A common cause seems to be font-size. If font size != 20px at startup, app will segfault. (you can change it once the app is running).

\- The buffers do not resize dynamically when I show/hide the keyboard. On my SGS2 in landscape mode, that leaves very little screen space for the buffers.

\- The app greatly benefits from Hacker's Keyboard or any similar advanced keyboard.

</comment><comment><USER3> Err....Emacs is probably a better OS than Android. :)

<comment><USER4> This is just silly. Emacs isn't an OS. It provides an API to some library and system calls, but it isn't even multi-threaded.

If your comment was meant as a hat tip to the Symbolics Genera system, that was a full-fledged OS, then there could be debate. I love Lisp and would dearly love to customize my Jelly Bean experience with it, but then we'd need to get into a discussion of what is really better, and 80's OS or Android.

<comment><USER5> IIRC, one of the original goals of Emacs was to replicate the environment of Lisp machines. With that in mind, it could be considered an OS not unlike Smalltalk environments such as Squeak.

<comment><USER4> _IIRC, one of the original goals of Emacs was to replicate the environment of Lisp machines._

No, that was Stallman working for LMI reproducing all of the Symbolics environment, because he was pissed that MIT sold the rights to work done in the AI lab to Symbolics.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> So? A Vim port's been out for a few months.

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.momodalo.a...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.momodalo.app.vimtouch&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsIm5ldC5tb21vZGFsby5hcHAudmltdG91Y2giXQ.).

/dons my flame-retardant jacket

<comment><USER7> And even longer on iPad, but these will only be useful when they can deal with ESC key. Vim without ESC is like Word without mouse.

<comment><USER8> Some people set it up so that 'jj' (while in insert mode) is equivalent to ESC (or perhaps it was Ctrl-c, I forget). Either way, that would make vim usable with an iOS device's keyboard.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Anyone trying to use this on a device with its own keyboard? eg. [http://www.androidauthority.com/best-keyboard-qwerty- android...](http://www.androidauthority.com/best-keyboard-qwerty-android- phones-2012-55315/)

Be interested to hear how usable you can make it. Whether you can remap keys or buttons to all the major modifiers.

Emacs 23 on the Nokia N900 is the reason I recently bought that phone even though Nokia is so uncool now and everything (works excellently, BTW).

<comment><USER10> Second this; having Emacs with org-mode, plus git, flymake and Python in the palm of my hand is just awesome. Now, if only I could upgrade the processor and RAM, get better battery life, and get a screen that worked better in sunlight . . .

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> It segfaulted here (11). Since the shell was available, ls -l revealed that only directories had +x on them, and none of the scripts. Not sure whether that makes any sense (or simply was not compiled for the right arm architecture).

It does not work from both Nexus 7 Tablet, and Google Nexus phone (latest)

</comment><comment><USER12> So how do you enter the control sequences?

<comment><USER13> With Hacker's Keyboard.

<comment><USER14> For those who aren't aware of this tool:

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.pocketwork...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.pocketworkstation.pckeyboard)

It's really shockingly great. It turns dealing with terminal access from your touchscreen from a complete hair-pulling disaster into something that I am merely disinclined to do.

All the ASCII keys are where you expect them to be. And switching between the keyboards at runtime is as simple as launching the included app. Definitely recommended to anyone who ever needs to (occasionally!) ssh from their phone or tablet.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Every couple of weeks since I started using Android, I've checked the Play store to see if Emacs was there. So even though I don't know what I'll do with it yet, I'm excited to download the GNU Emacs app.

Anybody have any ideas for what to do with Emacs on a phone?

<comment><USER16> Taking notes with org-mode and synchronizing them to Dropbox.

<comment><USER17> There's also mobile org for that though. :)

iPhone: <http://mobileorg.ncogni.to/>

Android: <https://github.com/matburt/mobileorg-android/wiki/>

Android Fork: [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.matburt.mo...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.matburt.mobileorg.ng)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Good work but I have some issues with the concept. I mean using all the keyboard shortcuts must be a pain. Did they try to make it use the touch interface at all?

<comment><USER19> There were some projects (also, if I recall correctly some ubuntu-new-ui projects for tablets/gestures). btw

<https://github.com/greboide/emacs-gestures>

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Now the editor's kitchen sink also includes phone calls!

</comment><comment><USER21> I don't know if I could adapt to Emacs with another input device. Part of being good at Emacs is training your muscle memory. I probably can't even describe half of the inane chords I do unless I was able to observe my hands performing them.

</comment><comment><USER22> Doesn't this have to be open-sourced? Emacs is GPL'd. I might want to help out with the development.

<comment><USER23> This app is open-source: <https://github.com/zielmicha/emacs-android>. When you start the app for the first time, it displays that link in the terminal output.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> We are on the way to start good development on an Android tablet! FTW

</comment><comment><USER25> seg11 on nexus 7 :(

<comment><USER11> Same here... after downloading a bunch of files.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> dupe: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4368237></comment>


Ask HN: Wordpress Workflows, Code/DB Versioning and Deployment - <AUTHOR>

Hello,
I'm investigating about Wordpress Workflows.
It seems that code and database versioning seems to be a problem among Wordpress developers, not to mention deployment between local, staging and production servers.
I will like to know if that's something you also experiment or if you have a Workflow of your own you will like to share.
My end-goal is to research as much as possible about the topic and try to implement the best methods on my own solution in the form of a SaaS platform.
Any feedback is welcome.
Thank you. <comment><USER2> Hi,

This doesn't answer all your questions, but there is an example automated install of WordPress with the Distelli SaaS platform. (The platform offers free accounts.)

Check out my blog here:

[https://www.distelli.com/blog/deploy-wordpress-to- ubuntu](https://www.distelli.com/blog/deploy-wordpress-to-ubuntu)

Once this is setup, you can deploy to any environment very easily. This is flexible enough that you can easily change the db name|password|user|etc. I've imagined some changes to meet your use case where you can specify these per environment.

I can answer questions if you have any.

Good Luck and I hope to hear back. -B

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you, I will check your post.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> `wp-cli` comes in handy. It can migrate a database and do a global search and replace (for the millions of URLs in that database that you need to change for the site to work after it's cloned) a lot cleaner than some of the plugins that are out there.

[https://gist.github.com/anonymous/2b2bdacffaa55998fd94](https://gist.github.com/anonymous/2b2bdacffaa55998fd94)

[1] wp-cli.org

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you, sounds interesting. I will check it.</comment></comment>


Jekyll etc static site generators are harmful to free open source movement - <AUTHOR> http://www.jeremyscheff.com/2011/08/jekyll-and-other-static-site-generators-are-currently-harmful-to-the-free-open-source-software-movement/ <comment><USER2> TFA is kind of misleading.

It's not Jekyll et al. that are harmful to FOSS. The author talks about Disqus being a closed system, which is true.

However, assuming that I'm using Disqus just because I'm running a blog on Jekyll isn't a fair claim.

<comment><USER3> Exactly. Plenty of high-profile blogs that are powered by wordpress also use disqus. Using disqus != using a site generator (jekyll), and using jekyll != using disqus.

The same could be said for those of us who use posterous to power our blogs. I think what the author of the article really wanted is to suggest a free/open commenting platform similar to disqus. I wonder how long until we see a "Comment.js" type post now? Could be cool.

<comment><USER4> > I think what the author of the article really wanted is to suggest a > free/open commenting platform similar to disqus.

From TFA:

> So I guess what I'm saying is that we need an open source (preferably AGPL) > Disqus.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I use Jekyll, but I don't use Disqus. What really motivated my switch to Jekyll however was not some abstract notion of "good code." I've looked around the WordPress internals, and yes, it's not exactly a vision of loveliness, but it's readable and the whole package has fantastic documentation.

What motivated my choice was security. My blog is very low-traffic, I post to it only a handful of times every year. It is not worth my time to worry about keeping WordPress updated and pruning spam from a comment list that ends up being 98% spam. Jekyll solves this so long as I'm willing to give up comments. Fair trade. If I want comments, the only way to get similar peace of mind is farming out comments to a third-party service which I do not control. (Because I do not want it to be something I have to maintain on a weekly basis.)

</comment><comment><USER6> Yikes… I'm finding more and more links coming up on this site that just simply shouldn't be making their way up. This one being yet another.

The web is very generational. One day such and such is the greatest thing. Then the next day another thing is the new hottness.

Static site generators are becoming very popular for a very good reason. Most sites simply don't NEED all of the crud that comes with dynamic sites. I think we'll be seeing a bit of a minimalization of a lot of websites now that static site generators are becoming more popular. This isn't a bad thing, it's almost like a reboot in a sense.

We'll likely see a large category of ways to combat the comment issue the link is discussing. But that's just one of the things that's so wrong about the article. The writer is worried about... comments?

Fact is Disqus provides a great service for people and it just so happens it works great with static sites. I know in the nanoc irc channel there was minor discussion about finding a way to use nanoc + something like couchdb to regenerate pages with new comments.

Point being, there are ways around using services like Disqus. They won't be going away and new services will pop up. The benefit here is that there's going to be a lot of changes because of static site generators. That's a good thing, it will hopefully make a lot of website generation tools a lot better.

The article however is kind of lacking any deep thought and relevent reasoning.

<comment><USER7> The article was about open source/free software. It's obviously important to the author, and unimportant to you, since you didn't even mention it once. That's why you didn't find any worth to the article.

I happen to agree with the author. I think that it's very important that all "platform" portions of the web are open source, and disqus is becoming a very important part of the web platform. But it's not so easy to create an open source disqus. The software is one thing -- but disqus is about the service as much as it is about the platform.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Imagine how many AGPL Disqus replacements could have been written with all the keystrokes devoted to whining about them.

If GNU/FSF are so serious about non-AGPL web services being so awful, why are they not stepping up to re-implement them? That's what they did with the previous incarnation of proprietary software.</comment>


AT&T Toys with iPads Instead of Cash Registers - <AUTHOR> http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/att_toys_with_ipads_instead_of_cash_registers/ <comment><USER2> Uhm.... My local coffee shop on 24th in Noe Valley already uses an iPad with Square for theirs.

The other coffee shop near my old office in Dog Patch did the same...

AT&T doesn't need an article attempting to make them look hip, experimental or innovative through the use of an iPad especially with respect to supposedly providing a better customer experience.

If you want a better customer experience; fix your billing, lower your rates, read the definition of 'unlimited' in the standard dictionary and stop just generally being a greedy big company.</comment>


Excel Is The World's Most Used "Database" - <AUTHOR> http://jasonlbaptiste.com/startups/microsoft-excel-is-the-worlds-most-used-database/ <comment><USER2> In defence of Excel, imagine it didn't exist. Then somebody says:

"I've invented a program that allows non-programmers to input loosely-typed semi-structured data without needing to define a schema. It is automatically human-readable, and data can be simple code that can act on other data. It doesn't scale too well, but it can export to CSV and other standard data formats, allowing you to build real systems with it once the non-technical people have finished their logical prototyping."

People would be singing its praises and proclaiming the death of SQL for umpteenth time.

<comment><USER3> NoSQL with a GUI!!!1!1!!

<comment><USER4> and reactive programming

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Excel is totally free-form, and for small-scale "databases", it's robust enough (until it isn't). This means the user can do pretty much what they want, without getting a programmer involved. And that's the killer feature, that more advanced or more specific solutions miss.

Let's take an example. If the user wants to stick some free-form text in between the end of sales records for one year and the start of the next, they are free to do that. In any less free-form application, they need to define a "comment record" or similar, and they probably need to get a programmer involved to do that. And although the SaaS web version of their "database" may have a better interface, in a lot of cases, having to get a tech involved to make that sort of change is not a compromise people want to make.

And they have a point. It's not a slight against programmers, it's just that when they need to make that change, you'll be 2 companies and 5 projects down the line, and it won't be possible. The article mentions a sheet that has been in use for 15 years - if that had been made as a proper program, at that time, it likely would have been done as, say, a VB application, with an MDB back- end, and it probably would have had purple buttons. The source code would now be lost, and if the business process changed at all, the choices would be a full re-code, or working around it. I would be surprised if in 15 years time, we don't look at today's pet technologies in the same way that you just did when you read VB and MDB.

For me, the direction that Excel, and other spreadsheet, need to take is the same route that browsers needed to take when IE6 ruled the world. We need standardisation, and innovation. I've written a couple of blogs on this, and for me, the way to go is a central repository of extensions ([http://edparcell.posterous.com/how-about-an-app-store-for- ex...](http://edparcell.posterous.com/how-about-an-app-store-for-excel) for more on that). In the case of Excel "databases", it might be sensible to create an extension to standardise the management and creation of such "databases". It could even allow features like sharing data, backing up etc, but for that to still happen where users are comfortable: within Excel.

<comment><USER6> See my proposal below. What I'm proposing would only require the installation of a Dropbox-like daemon on workstations and an Excel add-on that could make REST queries to a repository server. Otherwise, users of Excel just keep on using it, but their data is backed up, can be rolled back, and data in spreadsheets is available company-wide and can be integrated.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1430661>

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> This cartoon sums it up best.

[http://www.neopoleon.com/home/blogs/neo/archive/2003/09/29/5...](http://www.neopoleon.com/home/blogs/neo/archive/2003/09/29/5458.aspx)

Seriously though, the problem is that any real solution needs to accommodate housing data internally that's accessible concurrently with backups. Once you do that you still need IT involvement, which still makes it 3 months slower than excel.

\+ Most companies have share-point, and the newer versions allow users to define spreadsheets with rules that can be edited directly in excel yet still upload centrally for all users to access with backups.

I think you're trying to find a sweet spot where technology will overcome organizational bureaucracy. It's a tight spot.

Best of Luck!

<comment><USER8> Great cartoon. This needs to be submitted as a story. Thanks for the laugh.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I have a feeling the UX has a lot to do with it. Excel is just one big grid and all you need to do is move the cursor around using the arrow keys and key in data. Done.

All the 'Excel-replacement' solutions I've seen are forms based, so there's a lot of pointing and and dragging going on. That's so much slower than just using the keyboard.

Just observe how true Exel ninjas use it... the keyboard calisthenics is mind- blowing.

Perhaps an Excel replacement will need to have an Excel-like interface, or find a way to get rid of excessive pointing and clicking.

<comment><USER10> " _Perhaps an Excel replacement will need to have an Excel-like interface..._ "

Perhaps an Excel replacement will basically _be_ Excel, with a background script/plugin that scrapes that routinely scrapes the data and feeds it into a database. (Hey! Startup idea). The first entry in each column becomes the data field. The program is smart enough to take a sample data from each column, and use that to auto-pick the best data type. (Also re-checks a random sample periodically and re-defines data type if necessary). Bonus points for creating excel templates for consistency ('actions template', 'to-do list template', 'known bugs'....etc. Last one was a joke) and for easier definition of relationships between different spreadsheets (like for like data comparisons and relationships as long as the user enters the right info in the right cell). Now that Office has migrated to the web, this could be entirely web- based.

People's workflow visually to them remains exactly the same, which would overcome the biggest obstacle - unfamiliarity and resistance to change. Non- techies who need to make a list of customers, processes or actions don't know or think about headaches they are creating for themselves or others down the line. It's only the technically literate who would appreciate the problems of consistent, clean data, version control etc. This solution would begin to answer some of those problems.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Funny, just last month I sat in a meeting with the president of a $1 billion company to kick off the development of a mission critical app. When I asked him how to go about collecting requirements, he answered, "You don't have to. We're already doing this. Just see what everyone is doing in Excel. My people have to get the job done whether they have support from IT or not."

<comment><AUTHOR> Thats exactly what happened with my senior year project. Just look at the spreadsheets to see the processes/data they collect. Fairly ridiculous.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I believe it is also the most used project management software.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's also widely used for issue tracking I bet. I almost said bug tracking, but those tracking bugs are it inclined enough to get away from spreadsheets.

<comment><USER13> I'd love to say I agree, but I can't count the number of times I've been asked to deliver a list of bugs/issues/vulnerabilities in an Excel spreadsheet. --shudders--

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I am actually amazed at how heavily some fortune 500 companies I have worked for relied on Excel as both a database, and repository for what is sometimes the only copy of sensitive financial data...

<comment><USER6> How about a combined backup/sync solution for Excel spreadsheets? The sync portion could work like Dropbox, but the daemon would only pay attention to Excel files on a given machine, or in a folder, like a user's home directory. There would be a company account on a website or a locally running web appliance, where users could share spreadsheets, particular pages in a spreadsheet, or even particular cells. This would be combined with an Excel macro that can pull-down such shared data from the account website. Updates to data would only be sent when the spreadsheet is saved and uploaded by the local daemon.

This could even be automated by screen-scraping Excel running on virtualized Windows instances.

<comment><AUTHOR> A automagically simple syncing solution for excel data ala dropbox would be great and a hell of a start. This might even be a nice app for the dropbox api.

<comment><USER6> It wouldn't only be a great place to start. Once everyone's spreadsheets are backed up, you automatically have a repository of all of their data, which can be federated, shared, synced, data-mined, displayed in a web app, etc...

<comment><AUTHOR> Doing this with the new open source dropbox thingy Sparkle would be great. I like it because it doesn't force people to switch from Excel, but adds another awesome layer: web access, versioning, syncing,etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I think MS dropped the ball with Excel similar way as it did with IE.

Users of Excel see its great potential and its intuitive interface and use it for things that builders of this product have not anticipated.

What's wrong here is that builders do not follow users and don't try to improve their product to better fit what the users are using it for. Excel should turn into actual database many years ago.

Personally I'd like to see Excel migrate in this direction: <http://dabbledb.com/demo/#play>

<comment><USER16> I came here to ask if anyone remembered DabbleDB. When I first saw the demo I thought that thing would change the world.

Isn't that the kind of thing the OP is asking for?

<comment><USER17> I just headed over to DabbleDB's site to check it out and I see that Twitter, of all companies, has acquired it (!) They're no longer accepting new sign- ups. It looked like a totally awesome service. I can't imagine how twitter is going to use this.

<comment><USER18> The same team also run another analytics app called Trendly. And the team will be joining the analytics team on twitter. So you can see where it's going :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> this is exactly the problem we are trying to solve at hypernumbers.com, the internet has been in programmers hands since its inception, wufoo does a better job than most at enabling ordinary people to do more and we are looking to do more of the same.

Ill chuck up a review my startup thread in the next day or so when we get the website / documentation cleaned up, but would be happy to hear what anyone thinks.

<comment><USER20> That's awesome, I'd love to see more when you've got it up.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I'm pretty sure the world's most used "database" is the notepad and a pen...

</comment><comment><USER22> In the last office I worked in (mortgage processing place) they used Excel for everything and got no help from IT. One time I heard the general manager say 'I don't want to use Access, Joe Bloggs had everything running on Access a few years ago, and then he left, and then it broke, and nobody knew how to fix it.' In other words, Excel is a safe option because it's so ingrained and there's always Excel whizzes around.

Also, I never thought schools, PCs or technical manuals did an adequate job of explaining _what the difference is between a spreadsheet and a database._ Usually they just say 'database is for large amounts of data' but as we know businesses have enormous spreadsheets anyway. I'm not even sure how I would explain it without referring specifically to relational databases and saying something like 'think of a database as like a 3D spreadsheet...' and mumbling a lot

</comment><comment><USER20> This is the problem I'm trying to solve with AppRabbit.com. DabbleDB is a sweet online database, and Wufoo has awesome custom forms and reporting, but for actually creating a database driven web app, well hopefully that's where AppRabbit comes in. An intuitive model builder, column and record level access controls based on group membership and customizable filters, relationships between models in different apps, workflow, etc.

Also, I'm building everything on top of Django with plans for an Export App feature that will give people portability. Build your app and tweak it with us, then export and host it on your own servers if you want (although you'll lose the ability to customize it without getting into the code).

All in all, I think there's room in the market for a lot of different approaches, since everyone's problem is a little different, and everybody's data is different.

<comment><USER23> I'm struggling to understand what AppRabit actually does. It claims to "give[s] you an easy way to create web based database applications" that is build on top of Django.

Django already is an easy way to create web based database applications so what does AppRabit add to this?

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> We have a very complex SQL database that we use to keep track of patient data (we are a healthcare company) but to access most of the data for reporting purposes we still have to use Excel and pivot tables.

I'd love to find a better solution but excel so far is still the cheapest/easiest to train.

<comment><AUTHOR> What would be the ideal solution? This may be pandoras box considering its the healthcare industry.

<comment><USER24> I don't know but I'd love to hear any ideas the main problem is it such a niche market that few people have tried to tackle the problem on a micro level. Instead most companies come in and say let's change everything and lock you into our proprietary solution for the next five years.

<comment><USER6> I implemented a graphical drill-down on relational data with similar functionality to pivot tables. You could bring up an aggregate view on a table, like calls per day, then right-click on a bar in the bar-graph and choose an AND of a relationship. As an example, let's say it's "representative." Right-click choose "representative" and all of a sudden, you're looking at a graph of calls per day per rep.

The cool thing about that program, was that it was based on an OR framework, so all we had to do was to map it to a particular schema, and it could work with anything. It was implemented in Smalltalk running in a web plugin. It would be easy to do as a webapp in any dynamic language with a good OR framework and chart graphing framework.

<comment><USER25> The problem is that Excel already has pivot tables for relational data, and charting. The charting isn't interactive, so that would be cool. But you're not going to get people out of Excel just for that one feature. Because there are 50 other features in Excel that they use daily.

<comment><USER6> Maybe I need to build this for Rails & Django, then.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I'm pretty surprised no one has mentioned Google Spreadsheets. They are all over this problem - it _already_ has pretty close to perfect interoperability with Excel, but also includes really nice web-friendly features (eg, forms for entry, an Atom interface etc etc)

<comment><USER27> Dose this include VBA interoperability?

From the Excel systems I have seen a lot of the business logic is coded at the VBA level. So without full VBA support you only have half the a solution.

<comment><USER28> It doesn't support VBA, but it does support Javascript...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Our take on this: users like spreadsheets. The spreadsheet interface is the goose that lays the golden eggs; it's what allows so many people to get so much done. Thus any replacement for Excel has got to preserve the spreadsheet UI and preserve it in a relatively familiar way. Those criteria narrow down the class of possible replacements.

We met with a group of spreadsheet support people once at a fairly large company where, as is typical, IT was trying to force the users off their spreadsheets. Here is how they said users were actually using the spreadsheet- replacing-proper-enterprise-apps that they had been mandated to use:

      1. Open the enterprise app.
      2. Paste the data into Excel.
      3. Do whatever they want.

</comment><comment><USER30> The problem isn't that the software to replace Excel and Access isn't out there. In fact, Alpha Five does a damn good job at it. I started doing market research for exactly this idea, and saw dozens of people who are trying to approach this market in slightly different ways.

Unfortunately, I'm away from my notes, but my latest thought was this:

1\. Able to import basic excel data, even if an MVP can't deal with VBA. Support the basic types of Excel, and be able to interact with the data in a spreadsheet sort of way. (Much like Access.)

2\. Don't make IT afraid of this app. Imagine the technical support requirements as people lose data, do something weird. It's a burden to IT. So, it has to be dead-easy to use (Read: like Excel) with incredible documentation (video, audio, tutorials, dead-tree), and has to give buy-in to IT that it will make their lives easier, not harder. Judging by my experience working in shops with small IT, this is really hard.

Or, it has to be for very-small businesses without a major IT presence. Then, it has to be cheap, because they already have excel. This looks to be the biggest barrier! You have to convince the client they have a problem. To me, this looks like the wrong market, though the one I started to look at first.

It's a sexy market. I'd still love in on it, and the people who finally figure it out will be a billion dollar business. However, more people than you know have tried it. It's a deceptively hard problem and I've been thinking about it off and on for over a year now.

I'm starting to think it should look a little different. Take care of an enterprise app framework for small businesses that takes care of single sign on with easy LDAP/AD integration, connections to multiple database, connections to legacy apps (simple links with option for single sign-on integration, with options for new windows or frames) and THEN have an Excel/Wufoo-crossbreed add-on for creating small applications. This would have IT buy-in, as they could use it themselves for small things, it would have built in transparent security, and they would be able to delegate to power users who could define the problem and would be able to work with IT for solutions.

This would be a big app. I haven't found the MVP to extract, save for the framework itself. I'm looking for partners on this idea currently.

</comment><comment><USER31> And Power Point is the world's most used Vector Art tool I'd wager.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I put it at the bottom of the post and if I decided to do something with it, I'd do a more focused ask hn post. Here's a video of what my last startup built, but never released. Ironically I think it solves some of the problems defined in the post. Would this be useful? <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNl4cJNdizA>

<comment><USER20> Wow, that looks a lot (lot lot) like my current project, AppRabbit.com. Even the layout looks similar, although this is the first time I've seen your demo or heard about you guys, I swear! I love your approach, and your presentation and UX looks sweet! It's awesome to see other people dabbling in the same area I'm working in.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ha we deadpooled in december 2008. This was a demo video from back then, but I did ressureect the code on my localhost last night for fun. Shoot me an email: email@example.com

<comment><USER6> A big barrier to something like your product is the notion of something replacing Excel spreadsheets. People love their Excel spreadsheets. They are used because there are a lot of perceived benefits. Such barriers could be avoided by solving the same problems as an adjunct to spreadsheets. (This makes sure that there's a backup of all your company's spreadsheets. You can roll back to any prior version. It also enables easier sharing of data...)

ObjectStudio Smalltalk could do interesting things with Excel spreadsheets through OLE. You could open a spreadsheet and pull data out of individual cells, etc... I'd see if there are other technologies in more popular languages with better licensing terms.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> I'm pretty sure SQLite's got it beat by far.

<comment><USER33> In much the same way that x86 is not the most used computer architecture, due to all of the embedded devices out there. Yes, SQLite is probably used by more people than Excel, but it's not used directly. Excel is used directly by non- programmers constantly.

Edit: Clarified my first statement.

<comment><USER34> Reminds me of this

[http://blog.gobansaor.com/2009/03/14/sqlite-as-the-mp3-of- da...](http://blog.gobansaor.com/2009/03/14/sqlite-as-the-mp3-of-data/)

though I never tried it (or similar) -- my days of heavy Excel use are some years in the past and a few hats away.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Somebody who works at Kaplan told me the other day that all of their databases were in Excel. Insanity.

<comment><AUTHOR> The sat prep company,!? How are they getting data in there? What data?

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> I would love to see this happen. Excel provides so much and yet falls so short.

<comment><AUTHOR> This, meaning a replacement for using excel as a database?

<comment><USER36> Actually both things:

I'd like to see something that's more databasey as a desktop app. I mean, hell, just let me rename the columns, or something.

I'd separately like to see a "forms and workflow" webapp that you suggest.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> Well I'm not blind _quite yet_. Command+-.

</comment><comment><USER38> Its my most used Word Processor too

</comment><comment><USER39> Very good points. Just for fun I've wanted to create a web app for cap tables.

<comment><USER40> This is a great graphical resource of a cap table simulation across three rounds ...

<http://www.ownyourventure.com/equitySim.html>

<comment><USER41> Reported attack page...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> This could be an excellent title for an Onion article.

</comment><comment><USER43> DNS is probably the worlds most used database.

<comment><USER44> I find it difficult to use for storing arbitrary information, personally.

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> I can't even read this without zooming out at least three times.

<comment><AUTHOR> I've been playing around with arc90 styles. Resolution/device? I started making it so it would read well on the iPad.

<comment><USER44> The text is set to 22px, then that style is overwritten with '100%', meaning 22px. This is huge by desktop standards. 3% of people will be reading your words with an iPad. A much more common font size would be about 16px.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> Sigh.</comment>


Ask HN: Startup to enterprise and back to startups – how? - <AUTHOR> I started my career 15 years ago in a startup. Worked there for 4 years and went from zero clients to over a 1k enterprise customers. I learned a lot and it's still the job experience I'm most proud of.
Somehow I ended up getting seduced by a position at a big name IT enterprise, joined other enterprises and now working remotely for 3 years for a medium-sized company.
I think companies look at my 8 years at big enterprises and think I'm not a good fit for a startup. The truth is, I never felt at home in enterprises and was always fighting the processes and complaining. Go figure.
What could I do now to make myself more employable at startups? <comment><USER2> > What could I do now to make myself more employable at startups?

Startup hiring is a fuzzy science at best. Apart from abilities it's a lot about what impression you make in the first few interactions with the team.

Before talking to the team, invest a good amount of time researching on the space the company is operating in. The problem space, adjacencies, incumbents in that space and their offering, know what's unique about the company and the product. Learn terminology. Understand key metrics. Go overboard. Know everything you can beforehand. Use this knowledge in your interactions with the team. Ask pointed questions. Recognise and complement if there is something clever about their positioning and the business advantage they have because of it.

You want to leave them with the impression that the guy is not just experienced but is sharp and understands what we are doing here.

<comment><USER3> I'm in the process of hiring for our company / startup and you hit the nail on the head here. I'm amazed at the number of people who have done 0 research on us, yet tell us how impressed they are at what we've done.

My favorite line to follow up on these empty complements is: "Thanks for the kind words. What do you think we're doing that is unique? What would you do differently if you were in my shoes?"

In that past week, 2 of 8 interviews have had this empty praise. Neither of the 2 could provide a meaningful example of how what we're doing is truly unique... and it is in the job ad clearly spelled out. One of the 2 hadn't even been to our website.

Interactions like these make you want to put up huge filters to weed out the people using a "resume shotgun" interview process but in my experience the amount of effort you invest in hiring pays dividends once you do hire.

<comment><USER4> Seriously? It's hard enough to find talented people. Why do you expect them to research and understand your company along with 100 others they are applying to?

Smart people will grasp your product once they get going; I'm more interested in their intelligence, skills, and experience. If your product is sufficiently complicated that a solid engineer might not understand it's market appeal three weeks in good luck selling it.

Sounds to me like you like it when people who interview flatter you with their understanding of your amazing invention.

<comment><USER5> Applying to != interviewing at.

It's reasonable to not do in-depth research on every company you apply to during a job search (though some would argue that the smart applicant does exactly that and applies to far fewer jobs with a more personalized, targeted approach).

It's completely unreasonable to walk into an interview without having the foggiest idea of what the company does. This isn't complicated; take an hour or two before an interview to learn about the company, the competitors, and the space in general. Yeah, you might get hired by someone without doing that, but you're at a disadvantage against other applicants who understand that "talented" isn't enough.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is one of the harder parts of hiring for a startup. Where I've struggled in the past is finding the right balance between someone hungry enough to work at a startup (let's be honest, a lot of people just want a 9-5 with a steady paycheck, and there's nothing wrong with that) and someone with enough structured background to help improve process/efficiency.

It sounds like you might have this mix. The more you can show that you are a "startup" person, the better. The best way to do this is by researching the startup and playing to the hiring manager's needs.

Of course, this is entirely dependent on the type of startup you want to work for. Pre-PMF startups are incredibly fun, but require a very specific type of person. If you're looking at startups with $10+mm in ARR then your enterprise experience is going to be much more well received.

<comment><USER7> what profile would you hire for pre-PMF?

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Don't get down on yourself, man. I went through a job search last year and applied to ~400 companies and got strung along by several start-ups, one of which even said they were very impressed and asked when I could start, only to change their mind the next day.

Eventually, I found one that was a great fit, and I've been here for over a year and am extremely happy. What I've seen at least in the Bay Area startup scene is that many companies have unrealistic expectations and are waiting for unicorn candidates that magically fit all of their wildest dreams.

If you were at a company that started from nothing and became successful, a startup that has sense should be interested in you.

<comment><USER9> I've noticed there's a hiring difference between startups that have at least 2-3+ years of proven financials and startups that don't. At some early stage startups (say <11 months runway in Seed/Series A) hiring seems like a shit show because they often don't have HR or recruiters/talent acquisition yet. They realize they are small and are trying to get the most bang for their (well, someone else's) buck.

Not all do this, but some things I've seen/heard done by a handful of small, "scrappy" startups:

\- Interviewing candidates knowing they don't have the budget to even give them a job. It's a shitty thing to do because they are essentially knowingly wasting someone's time only to say "Yea, you're a great fit, we just need a few months to be ready to onboard someone for this role!"

\- Putting up unrealistic salary ranges on angel.co to look competitive to attract more applicants, then giving an offer that's 10-20% lower in salary than what was given (or pulling the "another applicant is willing to do the $100k advertised job for $80k, but we want to hire you, would you be able to come down to meet that number?" card).

\- Giving applicants "day in the life" interviews, where you sign an NDA, work a full 8 hour day, then don't get compensated for it. Sometimes 6-10 people are given these kinds of interviews for a 1 person job opening, and it's mostly just getting free work.

\- Bosses setting an expectation for a great work-life balance in the interviews, talking about how "they value their employees time", then expecting everyone to work 10 hours per day or be on call at whatever whim someone needs work done.

\- Assuming that because someone is foreign, they must be used to working long hours for little pay and not complaining about it. Even with contractors, there was a boss who hired a team in Ukraine, was invoiced $20k, then only paid them $15k without any legitimate reasons and said "well, that's still a lot of money for you so just be happy with it." It's amazing how shitty some people are when they make themselves seem so outwardly exuberant or buddy- buddy in person.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> As someone who's hired a lot of engineers at a startup, a very simple and yet highly effective thing you can do is to address this head-on in your cover letter. Just say what you said in your post: that you really loved working at a startup and specifically want to go back to one. That makes a big difference by telling me that a startup isn't your back-up plan if you don't get hired by a big company; it's your first choice.

Also, (and sorry to promote our own stuff) but you might look at workatastartup.com, a website we built to help engineers join YC startups. I'd be happy to look at your application and give you some feedback if it would be helpful.

</comment><comment><USER11> May be you are talking to the wrong startups? We are a startup and we love to hire with such a mix of experience. Experience working at large and medium enterprises is really valuable(in addition to working at a startup). Did you get that feedback from multiple companies or is that something you are assuming based on not getting foot in the door?

<comment><AUTHOR> Got direct feedback from one that I lacked skills in fast growing startups and two feedbacks that I wasn't a fit (even though I had all requirements in the job description). So that got me wondering what I could improve.

I think I'm competing with fresh graduates. I applied at startups with 20-200 employees initially. Really looking for that experience of taking something of the ground and scaling.

I know we shouldn't take rejections too seriously but reality is it was always easy for me to find a job. Maybe I've been too picky and overestimated my skills, maybe companies are being too picky now. I'm not sure but I'm thinking hard about this.

<comment><USER12> Might be talking to the wrong startups but also might be dealing with leaders who lack vision.

Spend time to figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are with those "fresh graduates". As a startup founder, I would take a 10x engineer any day. Fresh grads bring great energy and enthusiasm but experienced heads make sure my business is going to make the simple mistakes.

Don't sell yourself short. You're definitely valuable to any organization (startup or otherwise) as you've seen the best and worst of both worlds. You're an incredible asset.

<comment><USER13> Having worked at and hired in both startups and the enterprise the startup cop-out is to stereotype someone with an enterprise background and expect them to behave just like an enterprise, bureaucratically. This is a major fear within startups because they often don't have the spare time/energy to reshape someone's mindset. It's unfortunate and leads to a lot of skipped candidates but expediency !== efficiency.

There comes a stage in each successful startup when they start looking for adult supervision and explicitly seek enterprise experience. If you are looking for early stage work you should make it obvious that you get the startup's space and have a fast-execution mindset.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> A lot of good advice here - one thing I'd add is that if you're really having problems find a job at a very early stage startup, try something a little bigger but not a huge enterprise. Companies that have raised a B or C round and are trying to scale their business are often looking for people who have experience working at the scale they want to achieve.

Even if you'd rather be somewhere smaller, it'll probably be a better fit in the short term, and after a couple of years you may have an easier time transitioning to something earlier stage.

</comment><comment><USER15> > Got direct feedback from one that I lacked skills in fast growing startups > and two feedbacks that I wasn't a fit ...

Hilarious - Are they right?

Consider the source -- frankly, many startup leaders lack the executive seasoning and managerial savvy to make a balanced scorecard assessment of talent. Their hiring criteria often boil down to 'hot or not'.

Get clarity on your targets -- specifically, WHO is the Founder, Co-Founder, Early-Stage manager YOU can most help? That's the person you want to speak with.

<comment><USER16> _Hilarious - Are they right?_

How would one find out? If as OP stated, their skills lined up and matched the job requirements, how will they ever know?

Startup recruiting seems a lot like modern dating: a lot of terribly communicated expectations resulting one party effectively "ghosting" on the other, ending in a lot of frustration and apathy from one party at the other _because_ of said terrible communication-and that resentment or 'baggage' being unknowingly carried with them to the next interview cycle.

"Not a good fit" can mean anything from asking too much salary, to being just a month short of the necessary 5 years of experience for a tech stack that's been around for 3, to not wearing the right color shirt to the interview. You'll never know what "not a good fit" means because it seems like once a company decides you're not the perfect unicorn, rockstar candidate with a pocket full of ninja stars, you never hear from them again.

But don't worry, your resume is kept on file for other roles.

<comment><USER17> > How would one find out? If as OP stated, their skills lined up and matched > the job requirements, how will they ever know?

Job hunting as a software engineer has just become a literal grindfest. There's very little signal you can obtain from the entire process, but you can gain a lot of noise.

<comment><USER16> It doesn't help seeing people give hiring managers and recruiters so many excuses for just plain _shitty_ behavior at large.

I have to painstakingly detail and format my resume so YOUR job software can parse it, make it easy to scan and read but the job advertisement itself looks like someone let their cat walk on the keyboard?

Granted it's a minor thing in the grand scheme of how much cruft jobseekers put up with just to get _noticed_ and have a snowballs chance in hell of even getting a screening call-but I'm beginning to hold a lot of contempt for the job hunt. More than just the stress of needing a job and the people involved who seem to-by many indications-look at job seekers as subhuman.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Well, some questions rise up for me.

Did you get the interview? If you got the interview, it might be how you interview with them. I'm a startup founder and i try to hire people I can go to the bar with and seems very talented.

What kind of startups are you applying to? If you're targeting startups who does not or never plans on selling to enterprise customers, then they might be denying you because of that.

If you're interviewing with them and they ask you questions, just remember that you have to answer in a manner of "We'll get that done in 1 hour, and not 10 hours like you would with enterprise". And jobs are mostly a numbers game. They could simply be using your enterprise experience as an excuse.

</comment><comment><USER19> A good cover letter / introduction.

Startups depend on Generalists to make autonomous decisions that are aligned with a company mission.

Enterprise Specialists often get disconnected from the company mission and need a lot of direction, which is a liability for startups.

A cover letter, or in-person introduction that says _" I understand your mission and this is what I would do in the first year to achieve the company goal"._

Although phone screens and coding interviewers are looking for tech skills on the surface, the underlying motivation is "I'm too busy to train/manage you. Just preemptively tell me what you're going to do and how you'll do it".

</comment><comment><USER20> Career change is often best one variable at a time. For example, change company size but stay in the same industry. Double jumps are generally harder.

Perhaps, focus on startups that reduce the number of change variables. For example, startups focused on satisfying the needs of enterprise IT customers should value your inside knowledge of the pain points.

Keep looking - the right thing will be out there. (For example, my company, Turbot, is actively seeking remote employees with enterprise experience and a pent up hunger to get stuff done.)

</comment><comment><USER21> As a startup -> enterprise -> startup guy, I see your 8 years of enterprise experience as a huge plus, honestly. If you're having trouble getting back into startups, it may be one of two things:

1) employee thinks your risk averse

2) ageism. Unfortunately is real when applying to startups.

As for 1, I think proactively addressing this in a cover letter / interview would be helpful.

Hit me up if you'd like to talk. We may be hiring.

<comment><USER22> Agree here. I've been both, and what I find is most lacking in early, mid- stage companies is "process" and "ability to think of execution strategically".

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I have advised hundreds of clients that have made this same transition, and it's not as complex as you might think. Much of the problem is how you talk about that enterprise experience, which includes both on a resume and in an interview. The company name and size are not really an issue if you position your experience properly and understand your brand and value.

</comment><comment><USER24> If by startup you mean the "rocket ship" type, why not try a third alternative, specifically a small software shop? You may find them more open to people who don't fit the mold of the recent graduate willing to work 16h days, yet they're still small enough that everyone knows everyone and bureaucracy is still minimal.

</comment><comment><USER25> What type of roles are you specifically looking for? Engineering, sales, marketing, business, etc

Also what type (industry) and what stage startup are you applying to?

For example, "startups" like space-x I'm assuming value having a ton of enterprise experience versus something more consumer facing like Snapchat two years ago.

Different stages as well as industries will be looking for different potential + proof of experience and you should highly tailor your resume + interview to those expectations!

If it's more on the business side, happy to chat further if helpful :).

</comment><comment><USER26> You seem to be an example of survivorship bias. The majority of startups fail within 4 years, so your experience made you more marketable towards enterprise work as you progressed.

Your experience is not the norm for people working at startups, so you actually have an upper hand, just not necessarily in the smallest of places. Look for companies that are undergoing a rapid growth, just past the make-or- break point. These places need people who are experience working with problems regarding scale, and solutions that they require.

</comment><comment><USER27> Depending on your priorities, midsize is usually a great place to get autonomy wins of small startups mixed with the scale to actually be solving real problems. I'd be curious if you don't like aspects of your workspace or are otherwise convinced that startup really is the place to be.

I'm also gonna take a stab at reading this so take with a grain of salt. I think the companies are not getting back to you because it's super low odds of mutual fit. 15 years in and looking at early stage startups, you probably are not going to be a fit unless you are replacing a key team member or part of founding team. You have experience level, trading off for the very unglamorous aspects of early stage means the value prop to you would only make sense with significant stock package and likely a high salary. To get into that, you're really talking about opportunities coming in from your professional network, or a number of other low odds vectors for getting in the door.

If you want to go down that path I would suggest really building some solid relationships at either bigger companies nearing IPO or midsize, basically you need to expand the pool of people you're close with who might create new startups

</comment><comment><USER28> This might seem a bit shallow, but I think it comes down to the set of skills, a lot. To give you an example of what I mean, if you have Node.js and React on your resume, chances are you'll be pinged by tons of startups (and some very early ones) in no time.

There are so many startups in San Francisco right now, and we're in a strange situation where both demands and supplies are high, but the matching isn't always great and companies (especially startups) are still struggling to hire because they can't find the right fit. (sometimes true, sometimes because of terrible interview processes, sometimes because of not finding candidates like you who might actually be a fit but don't look like it on paper)

If your resume contains things like C#, .NET, etc. chances are many/most startups will overlook you for other candidates. (Not saying or generalizing what your skills might be at enterprises, just giving an example) Vs if you have Node, React, Docker, that sort of stuff, you'll look like an attractive candidate to them.

</comment><comment><USER29> The biggest, lowest hanging fruit thing you can do is tell them you are only interested in working at startups and you are only applying to startups. You need this in your resume, linked in profile and also make sure to mention it during the phone screens and onsites.

As an engineering hiring manager for (mostly) startups, I love candidates that have both BigCo and TinyStartup experience. Diversity of thought and usually by then, the candidates have a sense of where they want to work.

If you find that your tech or skills or experience don't line up with startups then you may have some work to do.

Most BigCos need specialists. Most Startups need generalists. Depending on your field, you might need to study up as some other posters have mentioned. I wouldn't study haphazardly however. Apply to a few startups (or industries) you are interested in and take notes of the questions they ask you and especially the questions you struggle to answer. Those are the areas to spend your time getting up to speed on.

</comment><comment><USER30> There's a silver lining: As an enterprise startup (graphistry), we value enterprise product experience!

As long as we think a candidate would be productive in our stack, or quickly ramped up, works for us!

We'd be more curious if you have the startup attitude, where the support, and bottlenecks, are yourself and our can-do team.

</comment><comment><USER31> My suggestion is to start listening to the This Week in Startups podcast and wrap your mind around startup mentality to understand what they are looking for in an early employee. If you can get excited about the startup mentality it will hopefully come across in your interview.

</comment><comment><USER32> Where are your former startup colleagues these days? If they are still working close to the startup field, it'd be good to talk with them, even if you you aren't looking for a direct referral. If you can get candid feedback from them it may help. Their gap analysis might be quite scary at first, but they can likely suggest ways for you close the gaps. And the gaps might only be at an appearance level. You've done the startup thing, I'm sure you can do it again if you persist.

</comment><comment><USER33> Talk to some people at a startup, and ask for an interview. Honestly, if you have a good number of years of experience and want to work in startups, there's no barrier keeping you out. You'll be plenty employable right now.

</comment><comment><USER34> you should apply to work with us because we love this type of stuff: [https://www.chargehound.com/jobs](https://www.chargehound.com/jobs)

</comment><comment><USER35> Wanna email me your resume (email in profile)? We're tackling an underserved part of the consumer finance world, backed by top VCs and still early stage.

</comment><comment><USER36> Start your own.

</comment><comment><USER37> Work for cheap

</comment><comment><USER38> Work QA at a game company. Work 18 hour shifts for $15 per hour. That will set you on the path.</comment>


Intel CTO Rattner: Wireless Power Likely to Produce Devices that Run Infinitely  - <AUTHOR> http://www.futureofgadgets.com/futureblogger/show/1195-intel-cto-rattner-wireless-power-likely-to-produce-devices-that-run-infinitely

<comment><USER2> Beyond running infinitely, this plus the memristor work that HP is doing would also lead to a great deal of miniaturization of consumer electonics as well. The two technologies together would lower required memory consumption; and the removal of the need for batteries in a lot of devices would also greatly help shedding weight and size.</comment>


Some Airbus Superjumbos Head to Scrapyards Due to Weak Demand - <AUTHOR> https://skift.com/2018/06/06/some-airbus-superjumbos-head-to-scrapyards-due-to-weak-demand/ <comment><USER2> I was actually a bit disappointed on my sole trip on an A380, expecting a noticeably different experience to a 747, but it was more or less the same. That said I think it's a stunning achievement that makes me proud to be European, and a real shame the timing was so off.

I have wondered whether it might serve as a retrofitted space launch platform - though it isn't freight suitable, surely it must have massive lift potential for an underslung rocket.</comment>


Adapting TriforceAFL for NetBSD - <AUTHOR> http://blog.netbsd.org/tnf/entry/adapting_triforceafl_for_netbsd_part <comment><USER2> I had no idea what AFL was (besides the football league). It turns out its a fuzzer. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_fuzzy_lop_(fuzzer)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_fuzzy_lop_\(fuzzer\))

<comment><USER3> It changed a lot of things. The amount of bugs found by AFL is insane.

[http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/afl/#bugs](http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/afl/#bugs)

<comment><USER4> lcamtuf (don't know their real name) is an absolute whiz, the write-ups on their website and tools they've built are great.

also, their website is an example of a great, no-BS web design, for the reason that it's one level deep. there's no "articles", "tools", "contact" links adding a further level of indirection and hiding what's on those pages. all content titles and descriptions are in the same area and are all visible at once when the page loads - at a glance, you can see everything their site has to offer, and get an overall idea of their work almost instantly. side note - i don't think we talk enough about how important visual locality is for information design.

<comment><USER5> Check out also his book "Silence on the Wire"[1].

[1] [https://nostarch.com/silence.htm](https://nostarch.com/silence.htm)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Saas pricing features vs usage? - <AUTHOR>

Given a Saas with features that can be grouped by level: basic, intermediate, and enterprise and usage that can be throttled to light, medium, heavy (ie 1M, 5M, 10M req per month, peak?), what are some thoughts, considerations, or best practices?<p>For example, is it better to let all the users have all the features, but price by usage, since it seems that hardware resources are the largest monthly expenditure (ie hosting, storage, etc), or is it better to price by features, thus enticing users who want desirable feature X to upgrade? <comment><USER2> Hey Marktangotango,

Patrick from Price Intelligently here. We think about this stuff all...the...time.

Overall, it's fairly dependent on the product you're selling, but considering what you mentioned check out these links:

1\. The Saddest SaaS Pricing Pages of the year: Goes through a lot of general information on setting up your SaaS pricing, particularly on throttling your value metric appropriately: [http://blog.priceintelligently.com/blog/bid/192297/The- Sadde...](http://blog.priceintelligently.com/blog/bid/192297/The-Saddest-SaaS- Pricing-Pages-of-the-Year)

2\. A Study of the Top 270 SaaS Pricing Pages: Go into a breakdown of pricing pages as well as a bit of a how to: [http://go.priceintelligently.com/saas- pricing-blueprint](http://go.priceintelligently.com/saas-pricing-blueprint)

3\. Developing Your Pricing Strategy: Ebook on developing your pricing strategy in general: [http://www.priceintelligently.com/](http://www.priceintelligently.com/)

To answer your questions though, it's a tradeoff on simplicity versus spurring upgrades. Companies like Wistia.com have a lot of success with giving it all away and charging strictly on the throttle, whereas companies like Uservoice.com need to utilize differentiation because of their value metric.

Feel free to send an email if you want to talk live about this: patrick[at]priceintelligently[dot]com

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the links Patrick, just doing research at this point, will definitely hit you up when the time is right!

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> You might get the best results with a combination of the two. For example, DropBox and Beanstalk tier both features and usage (for DropBox it's storage size and Beanstalk it is repositories) [1][2]. There are certain features that only enterprises will need (e.g. phone support), so you only want that on your more expensive plans.

1\. [https://www.dropbox.com/business/pricing](https://www.dropbox.com/business/pricing) 2\. [http://beanstalkapp.com/pricing](http://beanstalkapp.com/pricing)</comment>


That NBC (Sochi Hacking) story 100% fraudulent  - <AUTHOR> http://blog.erratasec.com/2014/02/that-nbc-story-100-fraudulent

<comment><USER2> I dont know what you are saying</comment>


The largest prime number yet discovered – all 17 million digits of it - <AUTHOR> http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/alexs-adventures-in-numberland/2013/feb/06/largest-prime-number-17-million-digits <comment><USER2> Previous discussion <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5170765> and also "why you should be excited" <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5181149></comment>


Show HN: Buttons - Organize and share your bookmarks - <AUTHOR> https://www.yourbuttons.com <comment><AUTHOR> Hey everyone, just want to share with you this bookmarking application that I created together with my brother. We wanted to do something minimalistic, easy to use, has great user performance, and offer features that we think will help to improve your online productivity, organizing your bookmarks, provide an easier way to share multiple websites at once and more!</comment>


Feedback wanted on OSS: Oak - Dynamic ASP.NET MVC (Ruby on Rails inspired) - <AUTHOR> http://amirrajan.github.com/Oak

<comment><AUTHOR> Just a little bit of background. Oak builds upon ASP.NET MVC, but leverages the dynamic capabilities of C#. I wanted to create a stack that is FRICTIONLESS to work with (a concept that is foreign to .Net devs :-P). I've been working on this project for over a year now and am finally to a point where "polish" is the number one thing I'm concentrating on. So don't pull any punches.</comment>


An Open Letter to My Boss, IBM CEO Ms. Ginni Rometty - <AUTHOR> https://shift.newco.co/an-open-letter-to-my-boss-ibm-ceo-ginni-rometty-cf40c3ed5ddb <comment><USER2> This letter is written by a person who contributes very little to the organization, yet seems to believe she is entitled to her conception of perfect social justice in all areas of life.

The US has had bad presidents before, and will certainly have them in the future. At no point so far has the CEO of IBM done anything wrong -- and when she does, that will be the time to criticize her. Until then, this is a CEO trying to promote her company to the incoming administration, and nothing more.

This is my favorite part:

> A look at IBM recruitment collateral suggests that the future of the company > hinges on realizing an inclusive and welcoming culture, though you do not > communicate this vision within the _many pages of your letter_ to a man who > will soon be in the top office of the United States government.

The letter is barely 4 pages long printed on US letter-sized paper. Where are the "many pages?"

People like this are impossible to please.

</comment><comment><USER3> Do none of these people have an adult in their life to tell them doing this is a terrible idea

<comment><USER4> I am genuinely curious. Why exactly do you think doing this was a terrible idea.

Here's a person who didn't agree with the stand the ceo of her company took. Resigned because she felt morally responsible and announced it because she thought it was the right thing to do. Irrespective of content, that shows principles, integrity, courage and maturity. So again what exactly should an "adult" have told her?

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> _" Eight years ago, IBM helped lead an effort to identify $1 trillion in savings the federal government could achieve through using advanced data analytics, data center consolidation, and the use of cloud technologies to improve the cybersecurity of key government systems."_

Here's that report.[1]

[1] [https://oversight.house.gov/wp- content/uploads/2013/02/Kamen...](https://oversight.house.gov/wp- content/uploads/2013/02/Kamensky-Testimony-2-5-13-COMPLETE.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER4> I don't get some of the comments here.

I'm not a US citizen nor an IBMer, so this interests me only as an outsider. While precious little will change with an 'open letter' like this, since when has having an opinion, resigning due to principles or "saying something" a bad thing?

The way I read it was a person who took a stand and announced it. Nothing more. Why are the commenters here inferring entitlement, immaturity or anything besides an opinion.

</comment><comment><USER6> This will put an enormous amount of pressure on IBM, what with the shortage of content strategists in the market right now.

<comment><USER4> Why analyse this from the perspective of IBM? Why not the poster? Are you implying that she should have just accepted the state of affairs and continued her job because one person can't make a difference anyways? Or maybe she should have just quit but not bother with telling anyone why because one person can't make a difference anyways?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I admire OP's decision to resign. But, to be fair, cataloguing citizens to facilitate genocide is one of IBM's core competencies[1].

[1] - [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust)

<comment><USER2> If you were really interested in being fair, you would also point out that nobody who worked at IBM during the Holocaust still works there today.

To suggest that the IBM of today is the same as the IBM of that time is absurd, and constitutes an odd kind of essentialism whereby the character of a corporation never changes even though every single person who worked there has been replaced. It ascribes motive, personality, and an unchanging nature to a corporation rather than to the people who run it.

<comment><USER8> I don't think hacker news readers have to be told that the people that worked at IBM up to 1945 do not work there anymore.

<comment><USER9> Neither that their bad decisions would gone away after they left the company.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Portable 17" second monitor? - <AUTHOR>

Has anyone here heard of such a thing as a truly portable second monitor?
I travel a lot but find it very difficult to do web work with only my 17" macbook pro, yet my 24" BenQ external monitor is a real pain to drag around, and either impossible or expensive/bulky to bring on flights. I'd love to have a second 17" screen, identical to the one in my MBP, that I could bring with me in my bag.
I tried a web search for this but couldn't find anything useful, so thought I'd check here. <comment><USER2> I used to use multiple laptops and control them from a single keyboard using Synergy. It's not exactly what you're looking for (can't drag documents between windows) but it goes a long way, like being able to offload all the administrative stuff (email, IM, music) to one screen and then work in the other.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, I could see that being useful.

My current laptop is maxed out at 2 gigs of RAM so I have to buy another one anyway to handle large-format design work. Maybe having both laptops with me will be good enough. Still, looking at how thin and light laptop screens are, I find it weird that nobody has packaged one up to be portable and independent.</comment></comment>


BBC News new design is live - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/

<comment><AUTHOR> See previous discussion here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1506388></comment>


Ask HN: Aggregator focused on interesting, well written articles? - <AUTHOR> I love finding well written articles about things I've never even thought before, such as this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23089782<p>Is there any aggregator similar to HN, but focused on this kind of submission? <comment><USER2> I think "well-written" is subjective, so how to aggregate it so everyone finds the content interesting?</comment>


Web developer replaces clients website with image of unpaid invoice - <AUTHOR> http://www.caribbeandutchpot.com/

<comment><USER2> 1) Require at least partial payment up front if there is any concern about getting paid. 2) Handle this in small claims instead of publicly. This doesn't make the developer look all that great.

</comment><comment><USER3> I have said this before, but I don't understand why any developer would move a site to a live and public server without having received full payment. Yes, take a deposit. Then develop the site and leave it to the client to pay you before launching.

In 5 years I have had 0 problems with clients paying using this method.

</comment><comment><USER4> Not to be too hard on the developer, but judging by these figures, they are under-charging. Clients that are attracted to the lower end of the budget range tend to be more problematic in various ways, as many a web designer can attest.

</comment><comment><USER5> Neat trick but it can also hurt developer for publicly shaming his client like this.

</comment><comment><USER6> Does not display that anymore, now it shows as hacked.

</comment><comment><USER7> Oh my God, what a great idea! I am going to start doing this.

<comment><USER8> If I get the feeling that there will be problems with payment I often include remote off switch (their server will ping my server once an hour). Payments often done very quickly, when they figure out I could do this without even having a password anymore.</comment></comment>


Inferring the causes of the 1918 influenza pandemic in England and Wales - <AUTHOR> https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3730600/ <comment><AUTHOR> Interesting read and interesting conclusion: "We conclude that behavioural changes, temperature trends and school closure all contributed to the observed three-wave mortality patterns in the UK during the 1918 influenza pandemic, and that behavioural changes had the largest effect."</comment>


Dependency parse tree visualization - <AUTHOR> http://spacy.io/displacy/ <comment><USER2> It parses "fruit flies like a banana" the same way as "Time flies like an arrow".

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_flies_like_an_arrow;_frui...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_flies_like_an_arrow;_fruit_flies_like_a_banana)

<comment><USER3> Similarly, it seems to fail on "The old man the boat", marking "man" as a noun. The meaning of the sentence however, in this case, is fairly unambiguous, but parsing it can be tricky. See other: [https://en.wikiped.org/wiki/Garden_path_sentence](https://en.wikiped.org/wiki/Garden_path_sentence)

<comment><USER4> In some sense, it's a mark of success for an AI system to fail in the same way that humans do. "The old man the boat" is a terrible sentence, essentially ungrammatical.

<comment><USER5> Can a sentence be terrible? In what way is it ungrammatical?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Please report any performance problems. I have this running on a pretty modest server, but it should be no trouble to throw up an EC2 instance if the traffic gets too much.

I did some simple stress testing that said it should handle a couple of hundred concurrent users, but I didn't put the time in to get a very realistic simulation. I worry it was too optimistic.

</comment><comment><USER7> Nice, and has a built-in parser and annotation system too. Very nice.

See also: [http://brat.nlplab.org/examples.html](http://brat.nlplab.org/examples.html)

Any others like this?

<comment><USER8> Full disclosure, brat author. We were inspired by things like "What's Wrong With My NLP?" [1] and TikZ-dependency [2]. But, truth be told, there is not all that many great visualisation tools out there for NLP data. The same goes for good and freely available NLP toolkits, things like SpaCy is very much an exception rather than the rule.

[1]: [https://code.google.com/p/whatswrong/](https://code.google.com/p/whatswrong/)

[2]: [http://sourceforge.net/projects/tikz- dependency/](http://sourceforge.net/projects/tikz-dependency/)

<comment><USER9> Brat is awesome! I just started using it last week for a project. For people who don't know what Brat is, there is a nice demo here using Brat to visualize the output of Stanford CoreNLP:

[http://nlp.stanford.edu:8080/corenlp/](http://nlp.stanford.edu:8080/corenlp/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Super interesting!

I'm feeding it Shakespeare, just for fun, however I'm having trouble understanding the meaning of having two CCMP in the context of the verb make in this

"Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt"[1]

[1] [http://spacy.io/displacy/?full=Our%20doubts%20are%20traitors...](http://spacy.io/displacy/?full=Our%20doubts%20are%20traitors%2C%20and%20make%20us%20lose%20the%20good%20we%20oft%20might%20win%2C%20by%20fearing%20to%20attempt)

<comment><USER6> Well, the parse is wrong.

In linguistic terms this is a case of "over-generation": the parser has proposed an interpretation that's not "licensed" by the language in general. (In contrast, consider a sentence like "I shot an elephant in my trousers." A reading like "An elephant in my trousers was shot" is licensed but unlikely.)

To see the point of error, step through the parser until the focus is on "win", with 4 words on the stack. (Deep linking into particular states will come in a future version. For now, just press forward...).

At that state, the parser should attach "we might win" to "good", as a reduced relative clause. Instead it opts to pop "good" from the stack. It then ends up in a bad situation, and essentially attaches to "make" as a way to concede defeat on the arc, and get on with the rest of the sentence.

The parser actually could generate any projective tree over its input. It's only constrained by its statistics. On the benchmark evaluations this tends to perform better. I'm interested in trying out ways to incorporate syntactic restrictions, particularly for verb valencies, into the parser.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I put up a similar demo a few years ago if anyone is interested: [http://nlpviz.bpodgursky.com](http://nlpviz.bpodgursky.com)

</comment><comment><USER12> Interesting and quite neat! I tried this with the famous openings of two famous novels, "Pride and Prejudice" and "Ulysses"; it did well with the former but struggled a bit with the latter. I guess that's probably par for the course for most humans with those two texts, though.

<comment> maze-le I think it depends on the level of complexity, and common structure of the sentences. If a writer uses a bit more prosaic language it will fail.

I tried the famous opening from the "Commentarii de Bello Gallico".

"All Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae inhabit, the Aquitani another, those who in their own language are called Celts, the third."

It failed to parse the tree in a correct way. On the other hand, it did quite well with simple sentences (randomly picked from wikipedia).

PS: I had also a hard time to understand Ulysses.

<comment><USER6> Interesting example. The Latin is much easier to parse than the English "translation" for this sentence. Actually I often tell people that a classics class is probably a better introduction for parsing than most linguistics 101 classes I've seen, which are usually a little bit airy.

Theory is definitely good, but it can't replace stepping through a lot of examples. Classics is probably the best place to get that.

Anyway. The Latin is probably easier to parse than the English "translation", since the translation here is hardly natural. I'd suggest that Classics translation have a particular tradition of being faithful to the syntax of the original.

Compare the parses for the original:

[http://spacy.io/displacy/?full=All%20Gaul%20is%20divided%20i...](http://spacy.io/displacy/?full=All%20Gaul%20is%20divided%20into%20three%20parts%2C%20one%20of%20which%20the%20Belgae%20inhabit%2C%20the%20Aquitani%20another%2C%20those%20who%20in%20their%20own%20language%20are%20called%20Celts%2C%20the%20third)

And what I would say is a more English-like version:

[http://spacy.io/displacy/?full=Gaul%20is%20divided%20into%20...](http://spacy.io/displacy/?full=Gaul%20is%20divided%20into%20three%20parts%2C%20inhabited%20by%20the%20Belgae%2C%20the%20Aquitani%2C%20and%20a%20tribe%20who%20call%20themselves%20the%20%22Celts%22)

The English-like version is still wrong, and I'm interested to dig through what's gone wrong with it. But it's a much better parse than the tool was capable of producing for the Latinglish original.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I tried "I am tired of being in front of my computer" and it treats "front" like a noun, and the tree is not quite right (the dependencies shown are like: I -> am -> tired -> of -> being -> in -> front -> of -> my computer, instead I think of something like: I -> am -> tired -> of -> (being -> in front of -> my computer)).

The UI is quite nice though.

</comment><comment><USER14> Huh. I work for a book company and feel we could do some interesting things with a parser like this...

<comment><USER15> I'd be interested to know what you have in mind.</comment></comment>


Software Development Gone Insane - <AUTHOR> http://softwareindustrialization.com/SoftwareDevelopmentGoneInsane.aspx

<comment><USER2> I recently finished reading Mythical Man-Month. That book is awesome. It's like Sun Tzu's Art of War, but for programming complex software systems.</comment>


Section links in READMEs and blob pages - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/blog/1126-section-links-in-readmes-and-blob-pages

<comment><AUTHOR> I know there has been a lot of user interface complaints about github lately. People have said it's very noisy. What I liked about this update was that I noticed it a few days ago, prior to the announcement. It just made intuitive sense.</comment>